Rail Trail Newsletter 4-29-2019 #34

Greetings! Hope you are enjoying the arrival of spring. This newsletter has a couple of new things. First off, there are quite a few new people getting this newsletter and so I should point out the color-coding here. GREEN = a story about the Mass Central Rail Trail or a directly connecting trail. WHITE = general stories around New England and NY. The ORANGE area = high-altitude stories from around the county or beyond. And we usually have info and websites about the Mass Central Rail Trail, but we are revamping that and besides, there are so many stories this month. The issue has 15 stories in the orange area. We've never had so many in one issue before. Lots of things going on for sure. Since we base the layout on 3 stories wide, we sometimes have to put a story out of this color-coded layout. The story below about the rail trail poem fits in this case. Also, I have two stories about groups starting to restore or call out RR archaeology on the trail. You are going to see more about theme, in that I have two lectures this fall in high profile places that will be bridging a connection to railroad historical associations and general historic preservation groups to trail groups. I'll have more on that for sure. And a new one just arrived this a.m. about Washington County NY. This is the area where a part of the D&H Trail snakes across the border with VT. For many years, the Vermont section was open, but not in New York. That is being fixed now. Enjoy, Craig Della Penna 413 575 2277 Craig@GreenwaySolutions.org Sugar Maple Trailside Inn 62 Chestnut Street Northampton, MA 01062

"In the News"

UPCOMING EVENT Sunday, May 5th at 1 p.m. Here's a fun family event on the MCRT in Clinton Mass. A walking tour sponsored by the Clinton Greenway Conservation Trust. Meet at Wachusett Reservoir, North Dike, Route 110 & South Meadow Rd. Clinton MA

Clinton Dam Day Location: Clinton Dam. Rt. 70 in Clinton Date: 05/11/2019 Time: 2:00 pm - 5:00 pm The walkway across the top of the Wachusett Dam in Clinton will be open for the public to walk across and enjoy the view of the Reservoir. DCR Rangers and staff will be there to answer questions, provide historical information, and discuss the importance of watershed protection.

Top spots to live 2019: West of Boston By Jon Gorey for the Boston Globe April 17, 2019 Explore the Top Spots to Live 2019 by region: Many of Boston’s western suburbs are famously expensive, and the search for an affordable home increasingly takes buyers to communities along Interstate 495 — to places such as once-humble Hudson, which had the top price growth for towns with medians below $500,000. Read more. [You'll note that the story doesn't mention the common thread among the winners. That a rail trail is already there or will be soon in all of them. Don't worry, I did point that out in the comments section. CDP]

Another Update in Belmont Community Path Design for the MCRT will Focus On the Segment North Of Tracks It’ s now the north side of the active rail. [ YAY, finally, North side is the best way to go. CDP] The proposed community path from Belmont Center to the Cambridge line will now be going along the north side of the MBTA commuter rail tracks after town representatives could not come to an agreement with a prominent Belmont property owner to take a portion of a structure needed for the path to navigate a “pinch point” along the route. Read more here.

AND IN OTHER NEWS AROUND THE REGION

RiMaConn August 24, 2019 Grab your best running buddies and join this epic relay adventure! Travel through 95 miles of southern New England on a network of scenic multi-use trails of the East Coast Greenway. It’s a unique, totally sustainable race that will get your team from Rhode Island through Massachusetts to Connecticut by the most eco-friendly transportation method ever – running. Be part of a 6-member team or take on more miles in a 3-person ultra team. www.runthegreenway.com

Rail trail to close key gap Work begins on long-awaited link to Columbia County in NY Construction began in March on a new 8-mile stretch of the Harlem Valley Rail Trail. When the work is completed in October 2020, it will link with two existing sections, forming a continuous 23-mile route through Columbia and Dutchess counties. The eight-mile section now under construction will connect two existing sections resulting in a trail of 23 continuous miles from Copake south to Wassaic, the northern terminal of Metro North Railroad’s commuter line to New York City. Read more and here too http://hvrt.org/

$1 million boost  City of Haverhill, MA gets state money to extend rail trail The state will give Haverhill $1 million to help extend the Bradford Rail Trail about one-third of a mile east from the Basiliere Bridge to the Crescent Yacht Club. For the safety of the public, the project will include lighting under the Basiliere Bridge, an area that is dark during the day. Read more here.

Trails Across New York Campaign As part of Trails Advocacy Day on March 18 in the State Capitol, Parks Trails NY announced the launch of the Trails Across New York campaign. The new effort's launch came as outdoor enthusiasts and grassroots trail groups from across the state gathered in Albany for a day of legislative advocacy on behalf of New York’s growing multi-use trail network. Read more here .

Westport, MA teams with neighboring towns on biking, walking trails The Westport Bike Path Committee is teaming up with its counterparts in Dartmouth and New Bedford to study potential bike trails and walking paths through the three communities. Read more here

Fitchburg-Leominster rail trail takes a step forward at public hearing By the end of 2022, an idea in the works for nearly two decades to build a multipurpose trail connecting downtown Fitchburg and downtown Leominster could be complete. That idea brought more than 100 people to the DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel in Leominster recently for a public hearing sponsored by MassDOT Read more here .

More closing the gaps in NY: Washington County gets connected to trails across the state Washington County has experienced decades of roadblocks and disappointment when it comes to creation of a continuous bike trail up through Whitehall and beyond. David Perkins, a citizen adviser for a county trails committee, said problem after problem arose, from bridges that needed building to agreements with private property owners that needed arranging. “It had been many years of discouragement that this bike trail was ever going to happen,” Perkins said. “It was affecting people in the communities. They just wouldn’t get behind it because they didn’t believe it was going to happen.” But now, Perkins hopes, they will believe. Read more here

Interesting Stories From Around the Country -- and Sometimes Beyond

Hello, Hula: Can Russ Scully Create a Lakeside Tech Scene?  Front-end loaders and construction workers crisscrossed the cavernous space that was once the factory floor at Blodgett Oven. Standing in the middle, in a hard hat and down jacket, Russ Scully described his vision for the gutted manufacturing plant on the shore of Lake Champlain in Burlington's South End. "The energy of this building, in particular, is really exciting," the 49-year-old entrepreneur said of Building 44, pointing out the big double doors through which he hopes more than 500 workers will enter and exit each day. [This sits next to the rail trail in Burlington. CDP] Read more here.

Moving by muscle — Active transportation can reduce climate change This article is the third in a series on how people in our area are responding to the environmental imperatives outlined in Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming. While the book does not contain a category for active transportation, measures for facilitating increased walking and biking are among the solutions for climate change that are already in action. The book’s editor, Paul Hawken, says if these existing projects are ramped sufficiently higher, we can reverse global warming by 2050.  Read more here .

The closer you live to an urban greenway, the more physically active you are, says UBC study UBC researchers surveyed people living near Vancouver's Comox-Helmcken Greenway Being physically active is good for us, we know that. And  a new study  from the University of British Columbia shows that the closer you live to an urban greenway, the more physically active you are. UBC researchers surveyed people living near Vancouver's Comox-Helmcken Greenway, the year before and after its completion in 2013. Read more here.

‘Plogging’ is the Swedish fitness craze for people who want to save the planet. It’s making its way to the U.S. Have you recently spotted people toting trash bags while jogging? Or their hands filled with old plastic bottles? You might soon. Sweden’s latest fitness craze — plogging — is making its way to U.S. shores. The term is a mash-up of jogging and the Swedish “plocka upp,” meaning pick up. In this case, litter. [My lovely wife has been plogging on the trail next to our house for years. We just didn't know what to call it.] Read more here .

‌ When freeways have no futures Freeway construction was a disaster for city neighborhoods in the 20th Century. Many neighborhoods were divided in two—their main streets demolished and businesses closed, disproportionately in minority communities. The African-American Tremé neighborhood in New Orleans is a good example, as the elevated Claiborne Expressway was built in the 1960s over Claiborne Avenue, a boulevard with a central green space that served as the commercial heart of Tremé. Claiborne Avenue was never the same. Read more here .

Cambridge’s New Bike Lane Law is ‘Bikelash’-Proof The Boston suburb now mandates the addition of protected bike lanes on all streets due for planned street upgrades. It’s a strategy other cities should follow. There’s been a strategic breakthrough on the front lines of the American bike wars. The Boston suburb of Cambridge mandated that protected cycling lanes be installed on all streets that are slated for reconstruction under existing city plans. Read more here.

How Do Drivers Not See That They're the Worst? You know how it goes: your city proposes a new bike lane project or does something else to encourage cycling, and inevitably the eternally simmering "drivers-vs-cyclists” debate flares up again. The drivers argue that the cyclists don’t deserve bike lanes because “they don’t think the traffic laws apply to them” and “they don’t pay for registration and insurance.” The cyclists counter by citing death and the environment and pointing out how difficult it is for even the most reckless rider to, say,  destroy a dentist’s office  or  take out a school bus  with a bicycle. Read more her e.

The Economic Value of Actually Following Through on a Bike Plan If Kansas City fully implemented its bike plan, local businesses would benefit from $500 million in increased spending and more than 700 lives would be saved over the next 20 years,  according to a new study , which bolsters the case that urban areas should fully invest in better cycling infrastructure. The researchers from the University of Missouri Kansas City analyzed a range of benefits that would result from the city’s plan to increase biking to 1.5 percent of total trips in the city by bike by 2024 and 5.5 percent by 2035 by adding 350 miles of protected bike lanes, shared use paths, recreational trails. Read more here .

Train signals to be restored and set along rail trails Worn by decades of being left and forgotten, the train signals will be restored and replaced to the locations along the Hancock portion of the Western Maryland Rail Trail to where they once stood. Tom Taylor, who owns the old Hancock Bank Building, said two rail signals were found near the town’s Public Works building. Read more here .

Wilmington, NC rail trail will spur local economic impact via art Last year, Univ.NC of Wilmington studio art professor Ned Irvine approached executive director Rhonda Bellamy of the Arts Council of Wilmington about transforming unused former railroad land near downtown. Read more here .

Land conservation leads to job growth AMHERST — In a first-of-its-kind study, a group of Massachusetts researchers — including an economics professor from Amherst College — have found land conservation in New England leads to job growth.  Read more .

Crowdfunding Can Reduce the Risk of ‘Bikelash’ This collective fundraising technique can help defuse anti-cyclist sentiment before it dooms protected bike lanes and other new infrastructure . Bikesharing and dockless bike ventures are spreading as more people get around on two wheels. Cyclists, planners, environmentalists, and others are excited to see these initiatives thrive. Read more here .

Open Space Institute is saving landscapes and building trails in Ulster County, NY While new development and sprawl encroach on the counties to the south of us, in Ulster County it’s trails rather than highways that are getting built. Despite being less than 100 miles from one of the world’s largest metropolises, Ulster County is still pretty bucolic, as if it had been bewitched. But it’s the vision and hard work of several not-for-profit environmental organizations, not a magic wand, that’s increasingly ensuring the county’s future as a rural haven, thanks to the ever-expanding network of rail trails and preserved woodlands and fields.  Read more here.

Wisconsin State budget proposal restores eminent domain for bike trails Gov. Tony Evers’ 2019-21 state budget would re-grant local governments and agencies eminent domain for bike and recreational trails — granting it the rights to claim private property while compensating the property owners. Read more here . [btw, Mass was the first state in the U.S. to allow this when the SJC, back in the 1970s allowed the town of Falmouth to use it to restore the integrity of old Woods Hole Branch to become the Shining Sea Trail. Read more about that. You are going to be amazed. ]

It was 20 years ago today that Sgt Pepper taught the band to play. Not really, but it was 25 years ago this month that I was under contract to write my first book on rail trails and the first trail that Kathy and I rode our bikes on, was the old New Haven RR's Williamsburg Branch, the Ryan Bikeway in Northampton, Mass. We rode past what would become, six years later, our cute antique house next to the rail trail. On 4-27-19., I was invited by the organizers of the Florence Poetry Carnival to read a poem at their annual event. This poem, called Ghost Trains, sums up my inaugural rail trail experience. Read the poem

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Phone: 413-575-2277  Email Me ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ 14 SHORT BIKE TOUR VIDEOS OF THE RAIL TRAIL NETWORK IN THE NORTHAMPTON-AMHERST-EASTHAMPTON AREA. A LOOK AT THE RR HISTORY, POLITICAL HISTORY AND THE COMPLICATED PROCESS OF HOW THESE CONVERSIONS TOOK PLACE STARTING IN THE LATE 1970S.

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